


After Horizon

by 9haharharley1



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Horizon (Mass Effect), Pre-Relationship, Romantic Fluff, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:42:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23155009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/9haharharley1/pseuds/9haharharley1
Summary: Shepard is in desperate need of comfort after the mission on Horizon. Garrus, being the best friend that he is, goes up to give her that comfort. He realizes he may just be falling for her.Everyone and their mother has written a post-Horizon scene, so I thought I would, too!
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 4
Kudos: 58





	After Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! 
> 
> Thought I'd hop on the post-Horizon bandwagon and finally write my own version of what happened after! F!Shakarian is my absolute OTP and even though I should be working on other fics, I thought I'd take a moment to post this. Enjoy!

_"You just show up after two years like nothing ever happened? I loved you!”_

_“You’re with Cerberus now?”_

_“I wanted to believe the rumors that you were alive, but I never expected anything like this!”_

_“You betrayed the Alliance! You betrayed me.”_

_“You’ve changed.”_

Horizon… could have gone better.

That was the nicest thing Garrus could say about it as he hung up his gear after Shepard kicked them out of the comm room so she could chew out the Illusive Man for his awful intel. He released a heavy breath as he closed his locker, mandible flicking in irritation. Next to him, Jacob closed his locker, the human running a hand over his shaved head. 

“That could have gone better,” he echoed Garrus’s thoughts, huffing a dry laugh. Garrus simply hummed in response. He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of his Cerberus teammate, but the dark-skinned human was at least easier to get along with than Miranda. For one, Jacob trusted Cerberus about as much as Garrus did, so he could speak a little more freely with him. “Would have been nice to have another of the Commander’s old crew along for the ride.” 

Garrus grunted. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, they had a thing, didn’t they?” Jacob asked. Garrus flicked his good mandible. “It might help put her at ease to have someone close around. I know she still doesn’t trust Cerberus and I can’t say I blame her.” Jacob sighed, leaning back against his locker. “Cerberus regs aren’t so strict against relationships like the Alliance. It’d be good for her to have someone she trusts so easily.” The human side-eyed him. “Kinda like you.”

“Me?” he hummed in question. “What do I have to do with Alenko?”

“You’re friends, aren’t you?” Garrus nodded slowly. Jacob smiled. “So since you’re the only one here from the first  _Normandy_ besides Joker, that means she trusts you the most.”

The Turian glared at him. “That’s not exactly a well-kept secret, you know. She and I both don’t trust you.” He waved a hand to address the ship as a whole. 

“That’s my point.” The human sighed, pushing off his locker. “Look, it’s not my place, but it didn’t look like that little reunion down there did her any favors. You’re her friend. Go check on her.”

Garrus tried to clamp down  hi s growling subvocals, barely managing to keep the irritation out of his voice. “I might not be human, but I can tell when someone’s in distress. I don’t need you telling me she’s hurting when it’s obvious to everyone on board.”

Jacob held his hands up. “Hey, man, I meant no offense.”

Garrus walked past him. “I know you didn’t. But don’t pretend you know what’s best for Shepard when you’re all the cause of all this drama in the first place.” He entered the lift without waiting for the human before punching the button to take him to the loft. He tried to play nice with all the Cerberus humans on board, he really did. He was as polite as he could bring himself to be and they were in turn, but sometimes they let slip something to remind him that he wasn’t the same species, like he didn’t know right from left unless they reminded him. Like Jacob. He didn’t need Jacob telling him to check on his Commander. He was going to anyway, whether Jacob suggested it or not. It just so happened that Garrus knew Shepard better than Jacob did.

He knew that Shepard needed some time to cool off first. 

Garrus knew she wouldn’t drag her meeting with the Illusive Man out any longer than she needed; she was too pissed to spend any length of time talking to him. Back on the  _SR-1_ , after any meeting with the Council, Shepard would stomp down to the cargo hold and proceed to rant loudly and passionately to anyone who would listen. Wrex would snort in amusement and Ashley would chime in with frustrated agreement. Sometimes Shepard’s rants were loud enough to bring Tali out of engineering to see what the fuss was all about. They all offered their continued support of her and her mission, to which she was grateful.

She was different with Garrus. 

After a long rant within earshot of everyone, she would calm down enough to finally breathe. Then she would make her way to the  _Mako_ where Garrus would be running diagnostics or making extensive repairs to the poor vehicle from her disastrous driving. She’d climb atop the abused vehicle and lay back. She wouldn’t speak for a long time and Garrus could never bring himself to start a conversation when she so clearly needed a moment to collect her thoughts. So he would work and she would sit in silence, and it was never uncomfortable. He took it as a sign of building trust off the battlefield, and  whe n  Shepard finally did speak, he was the only one she asked for an opinion. 

“Am I doing the right thing? Did I make the right call?”

Garrus was always there to answer. He was strong for her when she needed him to be, especially since she was so strong for everyone else. He didn’t think she was ever so open with Kaiden Alenko. 

His thoughts were cut off as the lift stopped and the doors opened to the loft. He stepped out. He stood at Shepard’s door and, not for the first time felt a nervous flutter in his gizzard. It was a feeling that started up towards the end of the hunt for Saren when they were alone together, that only increased tenfold on the new  _Normandy_ . He spent too many nights over the past two years analyzing the feeling and had finally come to a conclusion about it when he woke up in the med-bay after taking a rocket to the face. Now he only needed to grow the stones to actually address it, but that could wait. Right now his Commander, his  _friend,_ needed him to support her as he used to, as he always would. 

He raised a hand and knocked firmly on Shepard’s door.

Patiently, he waited for a response from the other side. When none immediately came, he wondered if she had even come up yet or if she just didn’t want company. As he was turning away, the display on the door turned from red to green and EDI’s voice came overhead. 

“Commander Shepard is waiting for you, Officer Vakarian.”

Garrus swallowed thickly. “Thanks, EDI,” he said, not bothering to correct the AI on his address. He hasn’t been an officer in almost two years, but that didn’t stop nearly everyone on the ship from calling him that. He had pretty much given up reminding them. He walked back up to the door and his mandible flicked nervously as it opened. 

The lights in the cabin were dimmed and for once music wasn’t playing throughout the room. The light from the fish tank was all that lit his way, the few different species she had so far collected casting flickering shadows on the floor. Garrus scanned the room as his eyes adjusted.

The room was superfluous for what should be an officer’s cabin on a warship. Then again, the  _Normandy SR-2_ wasn’t exactly a warship and Cerberus wasn’t exactly military. Still, Shepard was slowly but surely utilizing every available space. She started collecting fish capable of living in the same environment, and there were paper books on her desk, overlooked by her model ships displayed in the case above. Where she found the time to put them together Garrus had yet to figure out, but he was starting to suspect that she wasn’t sleeping properly and probably hasn’t  fo r  a while. 

Down the short steps and to the right sat a short table atop of which sat a glass and a bottle from the bar near the crews’ quarters, datapads scattered next to them. The desk by her bed held her recovered N7 helmet from Alchera with parts from her latest model abandoned nearby. Finally, in the center of the room was her large bed, too large for a single occupant, and atop it lay Shepard in a pair of loose pants and  a  ‘sports bra’ he recalled from a late night on the  _SSV Normandy_ when she couldn’t sleep and he had asked her about her weird human clothes. Her arms were crossed over her eyes, blocking the world out, and his heart ached for her. Her breaths were deep and even, and if he didn’t know any better Garrus would think that she was asleep. He did know better, however. 

On her stomach lay a mass of fluff that took him a moment longer than he’d like to recognize as her hamster. The little thing’s eyes were closed as well, sleeping peacefully on warm, pale skin. Neither acknowledged him. 

Garrus shuffled awkwardly where he stood at the foot of her bed. He glanced between her and the bed, then at the chair at her desk. He didn’t want to intrude on her thoughts, but he was torn between wanting to pull her from them and giving her space. He knew from experience that getting her to talk before she was ready was a waste of breath, but he wanted to be there for her like he used to be. He didn’t want her to think she had no one while they were in Cerberus’ clutches. He wanted their friendship to feel like it once had, but more. 

Making up his mind, Garrus walked to the side of her bed, making sure his steps were loud enough to register in her dull human ears so as not to surprise her when he took a seat at her side. She breathed in slowly, the critter on her stomach rising with her deep inhale and lowering with the exhale. 

“Hey, Garrus,” she muttered. Her voice was hoarse, cracking like she had been screaming for hours. Garrus could barely contain the worry in his subvocals. 

“Hey, yourself,” he replied quietly. Shepard’s lips twitched in a flicker of a smile. Garrus took that as encouragement. “How are you holding up?”

She snorted, arms still crossed over her eyes. “About as well as can be expected,” she answered tersely. “I had it out with the Illusive Bastard about his shitty intel and the prick barely bat an eye. I swear when this Collector shit is over I’m going to find his illusive little hideout and I’m gonna shove my boot up his illusive ass.” She exhaled another heavy breath. “This whole suicide mission shit has gone tits up from the fucking get-go. I woke up with mechs trying to kill me and now Collectors are possibly after me specifically. I hate this so much…”

Garrus couldn’t help but to let his subvocals rumble soothingly. He’s never been sure if humans could hear a Turian’s subvocals, or maybe it was just the implants Miranda gave her, but Shepard relaxed slightly at the sound. He’d have to remember to keep the more embarrassing noises to a minimum around her if she could hear them. He was glad to see her trust him enough to visibly relax around him, but he also knew it wouldn’t last with what he really went up there for. 

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he said softly. He tried to keep his tone soothing, but a growl nearly slipped through when she tensed again. He could kill Kaiden for putting her through such visible turmoil, and promised himself to shoot the lieutenant the next time they crossed paths. It wouldn’t be life-threatening or anything, but it would definitely hurt. 

He looked away from her as she gathered her thoughts.

On the floor by the bed, he s a w a frame. The stand was broken and lay against the wall and one corner was chipped off. He bent to pick it up, flipping it over as he went only to see a picture of Alenko staring back at him, a large crack spider-webbing across the screen. He recalled seeing this same picture on her work desk, lovingly provided by Cerberus when she took over the  _SR-2_ . This time, he c ould n ’t stop the low growl that erupted from his throat and his talons dug into the frame, piercing the flimsy glass and cracking it further. 

Behind him, Shepard chuckled deprecatingly. “You’re pissed, too, huh?” she ask e d .

Garrus grunted, flinging the already abused picture to the far side of the room. “To put it mildly.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I know you are, too, but there’s more to it. You and Alenko were…close.” He nearly spit out the word, it leaving an unpleasant feeling on his tongue. He sh oo k his head. This wasn’t about him. “Talk to me, Shepard.”

“What am I supposed to say, Garrus?” she asked. “I’ve already punched a wall and screamed into a pillow.” That explained why her voice sounded so raw. “I keep telling myself I’m doing this for the galaxy because it’s only a matter of time until the Collectors start going after the other races, that I would do this for any other race, but... its  _humanity_ . It’s  _my_ species they’re after, it’s  _me._ I can’t turn my back on that, not after Saren and Sovereign and those fucking husks.” She exhaled a shaky breath, lowering one arm to fall to her side as the other covered both eyes. 

“But I can’t stop thinking what if he’s right?” She clenched her fist in the sheets. “What if I am being manipulated, what if Miranda did put a chip in my brain and I’ve been indoctrinated to Cerberus the same way Saren was to the Reapers?” 

Garrus keened low in his throat and he couldn’t help but place a hand over hers. He shifted to better face her as her fist relaxed in his larger hand. “Shepard,” he started, then paused. “ _Jane._ ” Her whole body went rigid, the hamster on her stomach startling from its slumber. She finally peeked a bright green eye at him, looking a little redder than he was used to. He squeezed her hand and stared back at her. “You are  _not_ indoctrinated. Cerberus doesn’t have that kind of technology, no matter what they would have us believe. They are not all-powerful.” He tightened his hand around hers. “You’re a caring person, Jane. The most caring person I’ve ever met. You’re going after the Collectors because you care about all those people they’ve abducted and about everyone they’ll go after. If they were going after Turians or Krogans, hell, Bataraians even, you’d still care, and you would still go after them because that’s the kind of person you are and you know that its  _right_ .”

Her eye watered as she stared at Garrus, as his words seemed to sink into her stubborn brain, and her lip trembled. She bit down on it, hard enough that a drop of blood welled up, and Garrus squeezed her hand tightly, never looking away from her lovely green eye. Her hand  u n clenched under his and flipped over, her small fingers wrapping around his three larger ones. She held his hand as tightly as he held hers, allowing her to draw whatever comfort she needed from him. He didn’t mind at all, and in fact, that nervous fluttering in his gizzard spread warmth through his whole body. His good mandible twitched as his nerves lit up. 

“You’re not doing this for Cerberus,” he continued. The water in her eye spilled over to soak in her red hair. “You’re doing this because Cerberus is the only one who can help  _you._ ” His mandible flicked in what approximated as a smile. “And even if you were being controlled, I’d still be here to watch your six. That peashooter of yours has nothing on my rifle.”

That finally shocked a laugh out of her. Her free hand wiped the wetness from her eyes and she finally looked at him both beautiful green eyes. “Please, my shotgun does way more damage than your rifle. Who’s ahead in kill count again?”

Garrus gestured to his visor. “Me, obviously. My aim is impeccable.”

“Only because you steal my kills, you ass,” she stuck her tongue out at him as she sat up. Her hamster squeaked at the sudden shift, falling to her lap. “Oh, no!” She quickly scooped the little thing up. “You okay, little guy? I didn’t mean to spook you!” She brought the little critter to her face, nuzzling its little head as she cooed at it. Garrus stuck his tongue out as she kissed it gently. She laughed at him. “Don’t be jealous of the space hamster, Garrus.”

“Oh, I’m not, don’t worry,” he grumbled. “Filthy little thing. Why would you put your mouth near it?”

She laughed loudly. “Oh! Oh, Garrus!” Her eyes crinkled in amusement as she stared at him. “You’d be shocked by what I do with my mouth!”

Was that an innuendo? He was pretty sure that was an innuendo. Warmth flushed through him and he was suddenly every interested in what humans could do with their mouths. As he had his moment of panic, Shepard took the time to scoot back against the headboard, hamster in one hand and her other still in Garrus’s. She made no move to take it back so Garrus chose not to release it. She sighed. 

“Sorry to dump this all on you,” she said, eyes on her hamster as she set it on her thigh. “This whole shit show has been bothering me basically since I woke up. First Tali, now Kaiden…” She looks back up at him and smiles so gratefully it nearly broke his heart. “I’m honestly just so thankful you’re here.” She squeezes his hand again. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Don’t lie, you just keep me around for the scars,” he says on a whim. That got another laugh out of her and her cheeks turn e d a bit pink. He always thought the color-changing humans did was weird, but with her it’s… cute. He’d noticed it back on the old  _Normandy_ and resolved to make her do it more on the new one. It also helped to get her to relax. “Seriously, though, Jane. I’m here if you need me. On the battlefield or just to talk. I’ll listen.”

“I know you will.” She smiled. “Thanks, Garrus. Can you stay for a bit?” Her eyes crinkled as she smiled. “Or do you need to get back to your calibrations?”

He huffed indignantly. “I do not say that as often as you seem to think.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Okay, now you’re just being mean.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and he stuck his tongue out at her. She blushed, and he flicked his mandible in a smile as he adjusted his sitting position. 

They continue d t o talk well into the night, holding hands all the while. 

**Author's Note:**

> This thing is like six or seven months old and at some point I started switch from past to present POV. Hopefully I edited most of that!


End file.
